In recent years, virtualization technology of storage systems has been widely proposed. A plurality of physical storage apparatuses comprising physical storage areas are included in a storage system with progressive virtualization technology. Further, by including, in a storage area which is used by a logical pool built in a physical storage apparatus, a storage area of a logical pool which exists in another physical storage apparatus, a logical pool spanning different physical storage apparatuses can be integrated.
As an example of a technology for creating a large virtual storage area in this way, PTL1 discloses a storage system which provides virtual volumes spanning a plurality of physical storage apparatuses. In the storage system disclosed in PTL1, virtual storage is proposed which is capable of using virtual volumes which are not limited to physical storage apparatus units by building a logical pool spanning a plurality of physical storage apparatuses through the co-operation of physical controllers which are built into the plurality of physical storage apparatuses, and by assigning the logical pool to the virtual volumes.
Further, typically, if a user uses storage provided by a manufacturer, permissions (licenses) for using the storage are required from the manufacturer, and the user is able to use the storage within a scope permitted by the license by using a license key of the license to register the license with the storage. With conventional license registration, licenses assigned to physical storage are managed for each of the physical controllers which control the physical storage and licenses are registered by using a license key for each physical storage.
As an example of technology for managing licenses assigned to storage, PTL2 discloses a storage system which manages licenses in virtual storage. In the storage system disclosed in PTL2, the same license can be used between an upper storage apparatus and a lower storage apparatus by extending the license to the upper storage apparatus and to the lower storage apparatus which is connected to the upper storage apparatus and whose storage area is virtualized by the upper storage apparatus.